The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-03-02
a DEADLY WINTER.
Fearful Sufrerinss From Arctic

Fearful Sufrerinss From Arctic
Weather in the Northwest.
The winter of 1Ss6-S7 will long be remem-
bered throughout tho Northwest for the ex-
treme severity of the temperature and the
unusual depth of snow. Old-timers always
referred to former years as "high-water
marks" butthis year eclipses all previous rec
ords. The severe weather started in soon after
the holidays. Mercury thermometers were
often CONCEALED and spirit thermometers
were kept busy jumping from 10 to 60 below
zero. Half a dozen times has the 60 notch
been touched, and once this seas.n G2 l-2 be-
low zero has been scored on the Saskatc he
wan plains This year the snowfall is unpre-
cedented. In some localities it is anywhere
from ten 70 fifty feet deep. On the level,
throus hout the National Park and elsewhere,
tits from eight to twelve feet deep, and on the
dead-level prairie from eighteen to forty
inches. OF course, such heavy fall must
bring more or less suffering and death.
Already this winter number of deaths
from cold have occurred in Dakota. Not
long since Charles Schroeder, living near
Valley City, started from his house for
one 600 feet distant. A blizzard was
blowing and the thermometer registered -
below. Not reaching home, his family aud
lowed his tracks in the snow all night and
found where he had lain down in straw
stack and then gone on. . The next day the
body was found twelve miles away on
the prairie, lying on its face, where
he had fallen from exhaustion. The
body was frozen into chunck Of
ice. A few days ago Miss Maggie Bum, q
school l-teacher at Highmore, while going
from the school to her house, was frozen to
death. The bodies of three Indians who be-.
longed to Berthold Agency, were found
frozen near Ashland. Several more have
been missing since Christmas, and they must
have been caught out. Their bodies will
probably be found when the snow
melts in the spring In Montana a number
of casualties have already occurred.
Tony Wise and Swede named Martin
were at work on mining property on the side
of Sheep Mountain A huge avalanche
swept down tha mountalnslde and hurled the
men into eternity without moments warm
ing. huryiug them thousands of feet below.
Tom Williams, n sheep herder near Mossgals
Springs, about sixty years old, was discov-
cred lying face downward in the snow. He
was dead, but the sheep were wandering
aimlessly about Many had been Stampeded
by packs of wolves.
A band of British America Cree Indians
came acros; the line last fall and while the
weather was nne camper III Cue LiouutuluS
between the forks of Sun River. An unusual
snow followed and the wretched creatures be-
came renned i'll by an icy wall. From seventy
the number was reduced to fifty-one by
starvation, when white men hunted them up
and brought relief. During the latter part of
January fifty lodges of Crow Indians, camped
on Clark's Fork, came near dying. Many did
perish, but the majority managed to sustain
life by eating the cattle that died in the
snowdrifts.
Twelve hundred out of herd of fifteen
hundred sheep were lost in one locality, and
the survivors were so badly mutilated by
sheapmen in Western Montana have lost
entire herds. There is no doubt the cattle
industry has received n serious blow.